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Low interest in busing in Poland
POLAND
After distributing 765 fliers — one for every student in Poland Seminary High School — only 23 families expressed interest in paying for private busing to the high school.
The board of education cut high-school busing in March, effective this fall. The move is expected to save the district more than $280,000 annually. But the low interest in the private busing service means that not even that will be offered.
The fliers offered information about the contract transportation company Transit Service Inc. of Youngstown. That company already transports special-education students for Poland, as it does for most of Mahoning County.
“You need enough not to fill the bus but cover expenses. The problem was that we had about 23 families who were interested and then it started falling off. ... It wasn’t enough ridership,” said Ken Bochenek, owner of Transit Service.
Bochenek said the cost depends on the number of riders, and if 25 children had signed up for the bus but then 10 stopped riding because they found other transportation, the cost to the remaining families would have risen.
“Private pays are so hard to do. You need [riders] to commit and get them to be there every day,” he said “...But we are still available if anybody’s interested.”
Bochenek said his company was approached by Canfield schools for some after-school busing, but that it didn’t pan out. The Canfield board of education adopted a plan last week to restore bus-stop locations for kindergarten through eighth-grade students, pending voter approval of a 4.9-mill operating levy in November. It will not, however, restore busing for high school students even if the levy is approved.
Poland Superintendent Robert Zorn said the lack of high-school busing hasn’t been a problem so far this school year.
“I’ve had two phone calls, that’s it,” he said.
Last year, Poland measured high-school bus ridership per day with a low of 72 and a high of 93.